Army of Shadows

Sunday night I made the trek down to Key Cinema's to see the restored print of Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows

The film is only in Indianpolis through Thursday, but it really is a must see. The story is pretty simple. We follow a group of French Resistance fighters over a 4 month period on Nazi occupied France. This isn't a shoot them up thriller by any means though. The tension is definitely present throughout the film, but there are very rarely any moments of release. Any victories are small, nearly even unoticeable, any losses are tragic.

There are maybe 4-5 primary characters that we follow throughout and they operate under alias's. They don't have a glamorous life by any means. They operate against a bleak grey landscape. They are in hiding most the time. They can't tell even their loved ones of teh work they are doing. If they are caught they are tortured, if they die, they will die an anonymous death. If one of their comrades or friends turns, they need to kill them. This isn't a James Bond espionage thriller.

History tells that Melville was actually a fighter in the resistance, which gives this film an extra whiff of authenticity. The story itself is chracter driven but the most memorable scenes are scenes of silence when the actors convey more with their eyes than any dialogue Melville could have wrote. Some of those scenes I'd like to talk about but I think hold the most power if you don't know they are coming.

As I said this is only here in Indy for a few more days. And Key Cinema's isn't really that far out of anyone's way, just off I-65. If you have a chance to see it, definitely take the opportunity.

A Woman is a Woman

It may be true that I fell in deep film love with Anna Karina during Band of Outsiders, but if anyone really wants to see a film that Anna Karina just takes over entirely it must be A Woman is a Woman.

Truthfully, I had an awful week, and I just wanted to smile a lot and laugh, so I decided that last night at the end of my shift at Barnes and Noble that I would go ahead and purchase A Woman is a Woman and watch it after the end of the strangest, but higly entertaining World Series.

It's really impossible to catch the essence of A Woman is a Woman in just a few paragraphs. It was Godard's 3rd film. His first shot in color. His second with soon to be wife Anna Karina. It's a musical. It's a neo-realist musical. It's breaks all the rules of musicals. It pays homage to musicals. It's a tragedy. Or a Comedy. It's a masterpiece.



Angela (Karina) wants very badly to get pregnant. Her man at the time Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) will have not have any of it. he's a bicycle racer. Champion cyclists are slower after their wives pay visits. So, she, on Claude's urging turns to their friend Alfred played perfectly by Jean-Paul Belmondo. Alfred has been in the film since the beginning and makes no secret of his affection for Angela. It is because Angela and Emile love eachother that everything will go wrong.

The musical aspect of this film comes and goes. Godard uses the template of a musical to play with sound throughout the film. Random bursts of song out of nowhere, seemingly having no real dramatic meaning. The actors wink, bow, and talk to the camera. Godard and his actors have all reached the level of celebrity by this point, so the actors reference Godard's previous films, films of Truffaut, and their own celebrity throughout. It's incredibly self concious, and fun as can be all the way through.

And yet, as strong as Brialy and Belmondo are the film belongs to Karina. She became pregnant during the production of the film, and eac shot Godard and cinematographer Raoul Coutard frame of her seem to be handled with the greatest care. She dances around the apartment. She cries, she laughs, she recites poetry, she sings, she stripteastes, she holds two men in her grasp. She's perfect throughout and never hits a false note.

A Woman is a Woman is incredibly romantic yet cynical as can be. Some could see it as painting women as unsure, simple minded, and maybe even dishonest. Some could see it as a total homage to woman, and specifically even maybe a valentine from Godard to Karina. I don't know that they have to be mutually exclusive. It's romantic and cynical. Optimistic and pessimistic. A comedy and a tragedy. It's a masterpiece. It's about as fun as film gets.

Army of Shadows coming to Indy

To say I am excited about Jean-Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows coming to Indy would be an understatement. I have been jealous of friends in other cities who have had a chance to see this for months now. I checked the website weekly to see if there was any addition for an Indy showing, but nothing. It's not even noted on there now!

But, I check Key Cinema's website and there it is. Coming this Friday! Outstanding.

This film was made in 1969 and was not seen in America till this year. Some of Melville's work predated the the French New Wave, though this was made at the end of the 1960's as Godard was going off his rocker into Marxism and the FNW was sort of dying out. Yet, Melville is cited as an influence on the New Wave and is likely one of the most revered directors of the last 50-60 years for good reason.

At any rate, here is a description from Rialto Picture Website...

(1969) France, The Resistance:an escape from the Gestapo, so sudden and hairsbreadth as to leave the toughest of tough guys gasping with the icy sweat of terror and relief; two brothers remain unaware, to the end, of each other’s clandestine activities; patriots who, in relentless pursuit of traitors, must steel themselves to the most brutal of face-to-face violence. Lino Ventura (Elevator to the Gallows, Classe Tous Risques, etc.), aided by compatriots including maitresse of disguise Simone Signoret, goes underground in face of the German Occupation – but the price of heroism can be truly horrific.

Precursor of the New Wave and legend of the French gangster film Jean-Pierre Melville (Bob Le Flambeur, Le Cercle Rouge, Le Samourai) realized the dream of a quarter century when he adapted “the book of the Resistance,” written by Joseph Kessel (Belle de Jour) in the white heat of immediacy. Melville turned the detached, unblinking gaze of his film noir classics on these memories of his youth – he himself served for years underground – adding a jarring finale of his own, so stoically uncompromising as to reduce Kessel himself to sobs on his first viewing. But Army of Shadows shared in the general U.S. indifference to Melville's now-acclaimed-as-classic oeuvre and was never released here – until now. Original cinematographer PierreLhomme personally supervised this superb new 35mm color restoration.

Cougars Update

It's been a while and you may be wondering what happened to the premier indoor soccer outfit in all of Indianapolis, the Eagles. Well, truth told, we finished 7th out of 8 teams last season. Have no fear though.

The Eagles, much like Voltron, have morphed into a new outfit and are now the Cougars. There are a 4 or 5 holdovers from last sessions fan favorites, and plenty of new faces. The season started off last Sunday at 11pm with a 6-2 defeat. A bit unlucky of a result if I say so myself, we'll blame it on the start time and maybe the new faces needing to get adjusted to one another.

So, move on to this past Sunday when the Cougars had to play none other than Barcelona (can you believe it?). Luckily the Cougars seemed to have got it together and pleased the 10 or so fans that showed up and came out with a 3-2 victory. The game could have easily ended 9-3 or so, but finishing still seems to be a bit of a problem for the Cougars. Luckily there is a bye week this week before we resume play the following week.

We are working on t-shirts for our lady fans that say Cougars Meow. Maybe. But if so, they will definitely be hot!

Yi-Yi

I had Yi-Yi at home for almost a week from Netflix. Such things happen when you are working 70 hours a week and you only have late evening hours to watch a movie and the movie happens to be 3 hours long. I actually started it two seperate times and got about 30 minutes in and realized I was not ready for the commitment of watching a 3 hour film at midnight. When I finally got around to watching it yesterday morning, uninterrupted and in it's entirety it took me a while to figure out how I actually felt about it.

Yi-Yi is set in present day Taiwan and follows one family over the coure of what seems to be a month or a few weeks. The film starts out with a wedding. Before the wedding a grandmother falls ill and needs to be taken home. Shortly after we find out she has had a stroke, and falls into a coma, which sets strange things in motion for nearly every member of the family. The mother (and daughter of the grandmother) feels her life is empty after she feels she has nothing to say to her mother as she lies in a coma. She goes on a religuous retreat. NJ, the father of this family ran into his first love Shelly by chance at the wedding. As his wife is at the religious retreat he needs to go to Japan for business and takes that opportunity to meet up with Shelly again to examine the "what if?" Ting-Ting, the daughter can not sleep as she feels Grandma's stroke is her fault since she did not take out the trash. She takes Grandma's stay in a coma as a sign that Grandma has not forgiven her. Meanwhile, she has her first experience with love, or something close to it. Finally, Yang-Yang the 8 year old son gets in and out of trouble at school and somehow becomes the most endearing kid I've seen in many years of film.

At first glimpse at a story like this, I think "I have seen this movie before, family overcomes tragedy hardship through the collective human spirit and everything is terrific. Hurrah!" But this film didn't work like that. In fact there was a ridgidity or lack of closeness that seemed to penatrate all of this families dealings with one another. You almost never saw them together in the same place except for the large gathering of the wedding and two other points in the movie. There were not any moments where you had teh Hollywood father daughter/son heart to heart talk. Yet at the end of the movie, after a very well written and emotional final few words I felt deeply moved. And because of the apparent lack of closeness in the family I could not initially tell if I had been duped by an terrufic finale, or if teh film itself actually had that hold on me the entire time.

Truth told, the first two hours of the film I found myself wondering why I should care about members of this family, or there stories. It wasn't till the final hour that the stories connected in a way to make this family seem like, well, a family. And while it may have been maipulative "we are all connected, by certain moments" storytelling, it worked. Also, as has been pointed out in some other reviews the lack of closeness i tended to observe may not have actually been what I thought, but instead a commentary on the compartmentilization of city and family life in Taiwan. And, truthfully, I don't think that feeling is limited to just taiwan, I get the feeling it is very much present in modern city life in America. It's been present for ages, and was even explored in the Jaques Tati film Playtime while talking about 1960's Paris.

In the end, while I think Yi-Yi could probably have used a bit more editing and cut away maybe 30 minutes or so from the run time, I did find it to be a much better film than I had anticipated, even if it doesn't live up to the "modern masterpiece" title that some have given it. It's a film that is beautiful to look at, deliberately paced, and leaves you with quite a bit to think about even days after seeing the film, which is an achievement in and of itself.

Notre Musique, d. Godard

I was nervous then getting ready to watch, Notre Musique. The last Godard film I watched, In Praise of Love may have been the most visually beautiful film I have seen of his, but parts of it just did not click for me. I have such high expectations for Godard that I wish to love every film of his. I am happy to say that I found Notre Musique much more to my liking as a whole. In fact afterwards, I felt as if I'd been hit by a train.

Later Godard films don't seem to be about plot, they seem to be more about ideas or just a vessel for Godard to talk about film, quote literature, and discuss the world. In fact even in the 60's half of his films were that way, but the dramitic swing for him may have come with Weekend. Notre Musique is told in three parts; Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Godard calls these three parts Kingdoms.

The first is Hell. Hell goes on for ten minutes and is footage of war with a piano soundtack. The editing is remarkable. Some of it is real war footage, some of it is film footage, but no distinction is made. Ther are sparse moments of narration over this. But mostly we are just watching war footage. It very effectively gets across the idea of hell.

The next Kingdom is purgatory and here we have the bulk of the film and the bulk of the ideas. Here we also have Godard playing himself. At one point he holds up a photo and asks where and when the photo was taken to a gathered crowd at a conference. They guess Sarajevo, where most of the film is taking place. But it is a photo of a charred building in Richmond, Virginia in 1855. He's telling those in sarajevo that teh war is nothing new. It's been going on forever. We are given the usual Godard quotations and moments of dialogue. Questions like, "Is it okay for one to invade another over inferior poetry?" Or, "Why aren't revolutions started by the most humane people." We witness an Israeli and a Palestinian journalist go into dialogue. We have the Palestinian mention how they are fortunate to have Israel as their enemy, because everyone cares about Israel. An Israeli journalist visits Sarajevo because she wants to see a place where change is possible. Throughout the Purgatory section, people just contemplate their place in a world that is constantly at war. By themselves the questions look trite, vague, and maybe pretentious. Throughout the film they come together to create a much greater and emotionally resonant whole.

Last is paradise, paradise is only the last 10 minutes of the film, like Hell was the first 10 minutes. In Paradise we see a woman who we met in Purgatory. Though the voice over of that is of a woman whom we believed to be dead. Paradise though is a strange place. We see a woman walking arou walking around a densely vegitated forest. We see it's fenced off. Some people are playing games. One person shares an apple with Olga under a tree looking at the river. Two kids sit by a fence with guns. It's a strange and confusing ending to the film, but yet one that somehow fits. The whole movie is about war, and our relation to it, and in paradise we see kids with guns at the fence. And afterwards, and especially with the world as it is now I couldn't help but wonder, will it ever end?

Days of Heaven, d. Malick

It's a shame that I haven't seen any Terrence Malick films until the past few months. Just a few months back I saw Badlands for the first time and though I didn't so much care for the story itself, I found myself likeing the way it was presented and definitely enjoyed the direction. Days of Heaven was Malick's second film and in my opinion a wholly more enjoyable film than Badlands.

The story is simple enough. Early 1900's America. It's a love triangle that goes horribly wrong. Bill (played by Richard Gere) needs to leave Chiacgo after assaulting his foreman in a mill. He and his little sister and his lover leave and find work on a farm. Bill and his much younger sister refer to Bill's lover as his sister, because as teh narration tells us it's easier that way since people talk. The farmer develops a love for Bill's lover/sister Abby and Bill, knowing that the farmer will soon die, convinces Abby to marry him in hopes that they will inherit his money. Simple story, and obvioulsy, anything like that is bound to end tragically, and 93 minutes later it does.

But, somehow this film became much bigger tha the sum of its parts. First may be Malick's direction. Scenes never seemed to last longer than 2 minutes or so and semlessly disolved into the next. Most of these scenes were set against a wide expanse of the plains and were just soaked with beauty. Then, there was the narration. The naration was done by Bill's younger sister, seemingly years after the fact and seemingly far removed from the events. In the narration she doesn't even seem to fully gather the wieght of the evnts weare seeing, or maybe it is her distance from the events. In any case, it provides an odd and stark contrast to the story we are seeing on screen. The end result for em after 90 minutes was a thought that I had seen something far greater than the sum of it's parts. After only 90 minutes I felt as if I had seen a far longer, far more epic story.

There was a discussion started at Criterionforum on the film just last week where someone started off by mentioning the characters as detestable. Perhaps it's just my state of mind but, I found them far from detestable. I did not condone the actions of Bill, and if I really loved someone, I would not let them go for thoughts of future riches, but I understood the motivation. It's a risky proposition to be sure, but it's not one I saw as entirely selfish. Also in that discussion at Criterion Forum was a link to a very good piece on the film, which goes into great detail on the social and political norms at the time the film was set. In the end, even though I have only seen two of his films now, this film is enough to catapult Malick iup to a list of favorite directors for me.

The Weekend Ahead, good times in Indy

It's a good weekend to be in Indy. Better yet if you are in Fountain Square, where most of the action is. Or if you live at my house, which is 20 yards away from a secondary hot spot.

Starting Friday night at the Luna Music at 52nd and College the consistently excellent Mojave 3 will be performing an in-store at 6pm. Their latest album Puzzles Like You is this guy's second favorite album of the year. The new album finds Mojave 3 in a much poppier more upbeat place than some of their earlier work. Not that their early work wasn't poppy and wonderful, cause it most certainly was. It just did not get the booty shaking like many of the songs on the new record do. That instore is just a warm up for their show Friday evening at Radio Radio which I will definitely be at. From looking at last night's setlist in Chicago, it looks like it will be a fantastic show, with Tim O'Regan (formerly of the Jayhawks) and locals Svetlana opening. I will be there for sure.

Before that show though, why not stop by Big Car Gallery. At Big Car there will be an opening for Local artist Kyle Ragsdale and his new show Unbeknownst, which sounds pretty awesome.



In this show, artist, Kyle Ragsdale and historian, John Beeler have collaborated to shed light on several long-forgotten events in Indianapolis’ history. Ragsdale’s paintings beautifully capture the mystery of these often overlooked stories. Beeler’s accompanying text provides the fascinating details of the people and places buried in the city’s past. As Beeler explains, “We are not just trying to dig up new information, but rather recast some of these places in a different light. We have made every attempt to shimmy up to the "truth" of each place, but all of us are well aware that truth is an elusive beast. After all, "history," wrote historian Carl Becker, "is an imaginative creation."

Saturday may be a day of rest. Actually I will be working from about 8am-11pm. I just don't want to think about it.

Sunday is gonna be interesting.



The cats who have made my favorite album of the year Asobi Seksu are playing at Radio Radio as well. My #1 and #2 shows I would want to see here in one weekend! Ridiculous, right? Too good to be true, correct? Actually, yes.

A new indoor soccer session kicks off Sunday night at the Sportzone up on 66 and Coffman (a ways from the wonderful smoke free environs of Radio Radio and yours truly has kickoff at 11pm Sunday evening. Obviously, I can not miss the first game of the season. But, obviously I am meant to see Asobi Seksu.

Thank you Luna Music. Thank you for opening a store within spitting distance and giving Asobi Seksu an instore so I can see them at 430, even though I will miss them later that day. If you like walls of sound, or songs sung in Japanese, or just well constructed songs, you can't miss this. I saw these guys a few years ago on my birthday, and it was one of the best concerts I had ever seen. It still is.

A great art opening, two great in-stores, a two great and affordable shows at Radio Radio ($20 will get you into both!), and the start of a new indoor soccer season. Fantastic.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, d. Weir

1900 Austrailia. A group of girls from an all girl prepatort school go out for a picnic. 4 girls disappear. 1 is later found but doesn't remember a thing.

It may sound ridiculous to say, but Picnic at Hanging Rock is about everything that I wish a suspense movie to be. From the opening shot straight through the end of the movie there is an air of suspense that does not let up.

If the viewer actually allows their mind to wander, there are about 1000 explinations for what could have happened, and where these girls could have disappeared too. The thing is through the storytelling, and through the search for the girls, almost none of these thoughts is discounted or eliminated. It could be what you think, it could be something different alltogether.

Each time the camera comes back to Hangin Rock I was watching closely looking for a sign, looking for some sort of clue, but really, there is none. There are no scary monsters, no goblins, no gratuitous shots of blood. Yet, through the ridiculously haunting score, or maybe the way the light catches the rocks, or maybe the rigidity of the characters in their 1900 way of communicating there are more than a few uncomfortable moments.

There are many articles written on this movie, some of which talk about how supressed sexuality which to this viewer was very clearly apparent and gave the film a further eeriness. But, in the month of October, when it seems in vogue to watch some good thrillers or horror movies, this is one that I know I will find myself coming back to again and again. It's the air of mystery, the lack of closure that will have this film stand up to repeated viewings.

Playtime d. Jaques Tati

Our motto is slam your doors in golden silence... We were the first to study silence It's strange that the first two scenes or moments that come to mind after viewing Jacques Tati's Playtime were actually few of the moments where dialogue played a role. Playtime as the sleeve suggests is a largely silent film. This however really only speaks to the relative lack of dialogue. Throughout the film sound does play a major role. Whether it is the infectious theme that pops up and plays throughout, the bustling sound of the city streets of Paris, or the band playing at the end.

I had a vague idea of what I was getting into when I threw in Playtime. I knew that it was going to be a man, attempting to run an errand in Paris, but he would continually be engulfed by the city, or by tourists, or by a combination of the two. What I didn't expect is that I would have a smirk on my face the entire movie through. There were a few laugh out loud moments, but overall, the film was just warm and kept me smiling the whole way through. The sets and streets of Paris are so modern looking that I almost felt like I was watching a film set in the future. For some reason it made me think of Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville but there the streets with no additional effects were made cold. In Playtime through Tati's interaction with his surroundings what I thought of as initially cold in the end left me smiling the whole way through.

I'd highly reccomend this film, if for no other reason than you just don't see anything like this made today. As Johnathon Rosenbaum stated in his essay the sharing of space that we see in this film simply doesn't happen anymore thanks to technology. But beyond that it's just a very engaging and thoughtful film, and though at times the characters look like complete buffoons, at the end I couldn't help but walk away optimistic, even if I didn't know what exactly I was optimistic about.

I never could have scripted that. Best Eagles game in 2 years. My voice is entirely gone. Speechless. It will take a day or two to get back to normalcy.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Is anyone else finding it impossible to focus this week? I mean we are just two days away from the renewal of the greatest rivalry in all of worldwide sports. The soon to be Super Bowl 42 Champion Philadelphia Eagles vs the Dallas Cowboys.

Bounty Bowl. Bounty Bowl 2. 4th and 1 James Willis to Troy Vincent

The Pickle Juice Game.

Lito Sheppard's 101 yard INT return in 04.

Michael Irvin's last game ever.

I get chills thinking about these games.

I have not been able to focus all week.

I haven't mentioned TO yet. These games mattered before him. They will matter after him.

Sunday can't come soon enough.

Fly Eagles Fly

Philip Glass and the Photographer

I'm a sucker for Philip Glass. I like the guys soundtracks. I love his operas. It's true that numerous rainy winter afternoons I have just laid down and listened over and over to all three discs Einstein on the Beach. Some people can't stand his music. I love it.

I was lucky enough to see the Indianapolis Symphony do his Symphony No. 5 a few years back and was incredibly moved. I found myself lucky enough to see the Philip Glass Ensamble do a performance of Koyanaquatsi in front of a screen projecting the film down in Bloomington a few years ago as well, which may have been the most special thing I have seen to date.

Now this month, we here in Indianapolis get a performance of The Photographer.

Nuvo tells the story here

Eadweard Muybridge’s photographs documenting the movements of animals and humans helped make the development of motion pictures possible. The story of his life, though, is better suited for theater.

A story told by using what Butler Theatre Department Chairman John Green calls “the theater of images,” The Photographer focuses on Muybridge’s killing of his wife’s lover, a military officer named Larkyns, on Oct. 17, 1874, after he found their love letters. Muybridge greeted the man with these words: “Good evening, Major, my name is Muybridge and here is the answer to the letter you sent my wife.”

Muybridge then shot Larkyns. A court ruled the killing a “justifiable homicide.”

Glass’ telling of Muybridge’s story segues from language to abstract movement. Part one uses words from court transcripts, letters Muybridge wrote his wife from jail, letters she wrote to her lover, letters her lover wrote to her and things Muybridge said in court, all pieced together with poems by Walt Whitman and Thomas Hardy in a sort of language collage. Music written by Glass accompanies the material.

Part two is what Glass calls a concert: It’s a 14-minute orchestral piece with violin solos, during which slides of Muybridge photos of human and animal locomotion are projected, plus some other video.

Yes, I am excited. Very, very excited.

Don't Come Knocking, d. Wim Wenders

It's a bit difficult to watch when an artist either musically or in film has obviously lost the ability to create anything as powerful or meaningful as his earlier work. This isn't meant to come across as snobbery, this isn't about when someone has a crossover hit and someone outside the cool indie crowd starts singing their praises. This is more about when, in this case, you finish watching a film and you are unsure what the point even was.

I love two of Wim Wenders films. Wings of Desire is just about the most thought provoking and beaiutiful film I have ever seen. And in college, Paris, Texas was different from anything I had seen up until then. So, I was naturally excited to find out that the latest Wim Wenders film Don't Come Knocking reunited Wenders with playwrite and screenwriter Sam Shepard for the first time since Paris, Texas. It seemed to have the same quirky pseudo western feel about it too. But, for me the film just failed.

In the end the script just wasn't there. You have a washed up movie star returning to the town where he filmed one of his earlier films after his mother (whom he hasn't seen in 30 years) gives him news that inspires him to change the course of his life. Before all this, the film star (Sheppard)went AWOL from a films set and is being tracked down so he can go finish the film and honor his contract. The cast did as well as they could with this. Tim Roth, Sam Sheppard, Jessica Lange, and the always strangely intriguing Sarah Polley especially, were all at least competent in their roles. But, in the end it was difficult to connect with any of the characters.

Wenders has made a very good career of using the setting of his films to his advantage in storytelling. Wings of Desire would not have been nearly as bautiful outside of Berlin, or without Wenders overhead shots of the city. Paris, Texas had it's ridiculously beautiful landscapes that almost seemed to come straight out of a John Ford film. And in Don't Come Knocking Wenders has the town of Butte, Montana. And, there are numerous wonderful shots, and a decent eeriness and something special about the place to be sure. But, in the end it still just seems like a town without a decent story to tell, or maybe Wenders and Shepard just picked the wrong story to tell.

Back From South Bemd

It will be back to work starting today for a crazy month after my last real excusrion of the summer, even though I guess it's technically fall. My dad came out last Thursday evening and we went up and visited his alma matter, Notre Dame and caught the Notre Dame vs Purdue football game.

As expected Notre Dame had their less than impressive victory against an inferior opponent. They only beat Purdue 35-21 after being ahead 28-7 with a minute left in the first half. In addition we got absolutely drenched for most of the third quarter. But that added some character to the game, truth told. And I have viewed too many soccer games in the pouring rain to be too bothered by it.

Regardless of the actual outcome of the game there is something special about being on Notre Dame's campus for a football weekend. Especially when my father graduated from the school. And when you live 700 some miles from home and the football weekend is one of two times a year you actually get to see family. As for the campus itself, it's one of those places where even if the football team was absolute crap, something would still be special about a football weekend up there and keeps me hoping that these trips remain a tradition each year.

At any rate, hopefully this week I will get back to some regular writing. It's scary movie month, and I finally got around to watching Wim Wenders Don't Come Knocking so yeah.